


Purpose

by Yalu



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: AU, Career Change, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode: s02e15 Exodus, F/M, Fluffy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Identity Reveal, Journalism, Relationship Problems
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-11
Updated: 2017-03-20
Packaged: 2018-10-02 16:01:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10222061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yalu/pseuds/Yalu
Summary: Post 2x15 Exodus. Kara is miserable over losing her job and feeling directionless. Mon-El tries to cheer her up, and on the way finds a little more courage to face his past.Will definitely be AU after 2x16 airs.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So... it seems there's a lot of hate for this ship? That sucks. Call me a fandom grandma but I haven't seen anti-ship fics this angry for years. Maybe I've just been lucky in my fandoms. It's a shame, I love Mon-El. There are so few guys in fiction, let alone real life, who go "oh, that was sexist/racist/whatever? okay, stopping now" and work their asses off to achieve it. He isn't there yet but he's trying, poor boy.
> 
> Confession: I hate forced confessions. It's a trope I'm tired of watching writers set up and seeing characters react so predictibly, and from the previews it looks like that's exactly what will happen in Star Crossed. So I'm fixing that, and for anyone reading this after 2x16 airs this fic is in an AU where Roulette was kept in prison, no one was taken for slave labour and Mon-El's parents still have no idea where he is. Or you could read it as canon-compliant for everyting already released. Works either way.

 

 

Kara didn't get up the next morning. Mon-El wasn't nudged out of sleep by the feel of her weight rolling off the mattress, and he didn't paw clumsily at the warm pillow until he woke up enough to realise she was gone. His eyes peeled open to the sight of her shoulder and the tumble of her hair and he sleepily thought, _Saturday, yesssssssss!_

But it was Thursday, and it was almost 10:30, and her eyes were rimmed with red. "Kara?"

She glanced at him and tried to smile. "Hi," she said in a small voice, and his heart broke.

Rolling over onto his side, Mon-El tugged on the blanket till it was tucked thick under their chins. "Hey. You all right?"

Kara pushed her nose into the cotton. "I want to stay here a while."

"Okay." He shuffled around till he could wrap his arms under her back and around her middle, chin tucked into her neck. "If that's what you want, we can stay here all day."

Then she did smile, a little, and curled into him. "Thanks."

Her heartbeat was loud and slow in his ear, peaceful, and as the minutes ticked by (why did she have a ticking clock? They could hear every clock in the building) Mon-El let himself doze. Kara shifted a few times, made herself comfortable. Or not. She'd stay still for a few minutes, sometimes a lot of minutes, then twitch and push herself around on her elbows and fluff her pillow. Sometimes the elbows ended up in him. After a while he opened his eyes and squinted at her. "You're not all right."

She groaned and ducked into the pillow. "I'm sorry, I'm just..."

"You miss your job."

Her shoulders shuddered under his hands. Mon-El pulled her into a hug and smoothed her hair away from her face. Her eyes were welling up again, and her voice caught in her throat: "I really really loved that job."

"Hey, hey..." He cradled her jaw with both hands and leaned in to put them nose to nose. "You'll get another job. And you did the right thing publishing your blob."

And yeah, he knew now that wasn't the word, but it made her smile, distracted her for a second. Not long enough. "Alex had already found Cadmus. If I hadn't published it Lillian wouldn't have started the launch early, and–"

"You didn't know that then," said Mon-El. "You did the only thing you could to protect the people and I bet you'd do the same thing again. Hindsight is fifty-fifty, right?"

Suddenly she smiled, only for a second but she smiled, and he didn't know why. "Twenty-twenty," she corrected.

"Really?" He let his forehead crinkle theatrically. "Why?"

Kara opened her mouth, but the spark of humour faded again and she just shook her head. "Long story."

He'd ask Winn later. "Maybe this is a good thing. In the long run, I mean."

She levelled a flat look at him. "Losing my job is a good thing."

"No, no, I meant your blob. Look how many people you reached, human and alien. You reported a story to them, and they heard it. They reacted to it." He thought for a second. "Can blobbing be a job?"

Kara shrugged, rolling back to look up at the ceiling. "Sort of. Anyone can do it, but you only make money if you're famous and enough people read it, and I'm not going to get that overnight, if ever. I need to pay rent next _week._ "

"Don't worry about the money, Kara, we'll figure it out," he said lightly. He settled back into his pillow, sliding a hand down to hold hers. She squeezed his fingers. "The bar pays me plenty; I can cover rent for now." He tried to keep how pleased he was with himself out of his voice. Probably didn't work.

She shook her head anyway. "Plenty for a barman, yeah. It won't be enough."

"Why, how much were you making?"

"...More than that."

"Huh," said Mon-El. "You know, on Daxam serving drinks was considered very prestigious."

For a split second she started rolling her eyes, then turned her head to hide it. Mon-El pretended not to notice. "Did you ever think about making it your career there?" she asked, looking back.

"...No." He bit his lip and rolled onto his side. "I think you should keep writing your blob. At least–" he pressed on as she opened her mouth "–until you get another reporter job. You need to do this, even if you're not being paid for it. It's who you are."

Kara looked away, around the room, at the sunny windows and their joined hands. Her lips were pressed tight and there was tension in her arm; he could feel it as it brushed against his. "Hey," he said, shuffling closer to stroke her cheek. "It'll be okay. Just think about it?"

She nodded slowly. "Okay."

"Great!" he said, and he said it with too much enthusiasm just to make her smile. Still a small smile, but better. He leaned up and kissed her. "So, I'm _really_ getting hungry. So I'm going to go out super fast and get us coffee and donuts and... probably not pot stickers since I don't know anyone who's open right now." He winced. "Sorry. What else would help cheer you up?"

She shrugged, trying weakly to be perky about it. "I don't know. Surprise me."

"We could have sex in the bath again."

Her cheeks went red and finally, finally she giggled – a real, genuine laugh. "I don't think I've got the control to not break it right now. We barely avoided a flood last time."

"Oh well." He kissed her again, short and sweet, and hopped out of bed. "Be back in four minutes!" he promised, and took off running–

"Wait, Mon-El!"

He slid to a stop at the front door and super-sped back. "Yeah?"

"Pants."

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara interviews and Mon-El listens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To all of you saying last chapter was sweet, you inspired my favourite bit of this first scene ;) It is getting more serious though.
> 
>  
> 
> I stole the name Sazu from the comics wikia; she was a handmaiden to Maxima. Here she's still Almeracian, but that's all. 
> 
>  
> 
> I didn't catch the name Takron-Galtos when watching the episode and had to look it up ([DC wikia](http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Takron-Galtos)).

 

 

Kara was sitting up in bed when Mon-El got back, typing madly on her tablet. She noticed him but didn't take her eyes off the screen until he wafted coffee under her nose. "I got a hundred and eighty comments," she said, taking the lidded cup and still typing clumsily with her free hand. "Thanks. Some are from aliens halfway across Earth. They're all scared, they want to know how to protect themselves."

"So why don't you blob again and tell them?" Mon-El asked, balancing his own cup and the donut box as he climbed back into bed.

She hit a button with finality and began scrolling down her screen. Mon-El wiggled the open box in front of her and, when that didn't work, picked up a donut and held it in front of her. She bit it mid-air. "Fwank ooo."

Bit of sugar and cinnamon sprinkled over her keyboard; Kara hurriedly swiped them away as she swallowed. "I'm answering the comments one by one. But I don't know what I can say; some of them really aren't safe. Cadmus still has the list, but I haven't got any public sources I can use to to tell them that. I can't even tell them the aliens who were captured are free without using Supergirl as my only source _again_."

Mon-El thought hard, taking a gulp of coffee and considering his options carefully as Kara started typing again, coffee cup wedged in her lap. With a prayer to Rao, he made his choice: He offered her a chocolate donut.

The tap-tap of her keyboard slowed down as fried sugary heaven hovered in front of her. "Is that double sprinkles?"

"Yes." He dangled it just out of biting range. Kara narrowed her eyes at him and went for it anyway. Mon-El yanked it back and her teeth snapped shut on air. "Take a break? Please? There's three more."

"Did you plan on bribing me when you went out?" she asked, but she did push the tablet down to their knees and, partly out of self-preservation, Mon-El put the box on her lap. She picked a chocolate double sprinkles one first. 

"I call it currency. Buys me some Kara time."

He didn't mean it as a complaint – mostly – but her chewing slowed and she glanced down guiltily. She swallowed. "What humans say about the way to the heart being through the stomach – you know it's not true, right?"

"It's sort of true. But hey, means more donuts for me too," said Mon-El, snatching a second one from the box (cinnamon. He wasn't crazy) and snaking an arm round to hug her on the way. "So, what if you write a blob with first-hand accounts from the aliens who got off the ship? Lyra will give you an interview. She'll be at the bar after lunch."

Kara looked up, surprised, a hint of optimism in her eyes. Then she squinted at him. "You arranged that? In the ten minutes you were gone?"

"Um. No." Mon-El ducked and scratched his chin. "Wasn't even my idea. I called Winn." He shrugged. "He's known you way longer than I have. He told Lyra yesterday that you're the one who tipped off Supergirl about the launch and your blob warned some of her friends in time for them to get away, so she's more than happy to help."

Surprise melted into a smile. "Thank you." She shook herself and turned to reach for her phone. "I've got to thank Winn."

"He'll be there too after work. Hey– where're you going?"

Kara was shoving the blankets off and heading for the bathroom. "I need a shower if I'm going to meet Lyra in half an hour."

"You can do that in, like, twenty seconds once the water's hot."

"Fifteen!" she replied, and closed the door behind her.

Mon-El groaned and let himself slip over till he was lying on her empty pillow. "But I was just getting warm again."

 

The after-lunch crowd at the bar was thin. Lyra was waiting at a booth tucked into a corner past the pool tables. "Winn said you lost your job," she said as Kara and Mon-El sat down. "I'm sorry to hear it. But for what it's worth I know half a dozen people who are alive now because of you."

Half out of her jacket, Kara went still. Something restful settled into her shoulders and smoothed the lines from her face, and she nodded slowly, sliding her arm out of her sleeve. "That's worth everything," she said. "Thank you."

Under the table, Mon-El squeezed her hand. Her fingers were cool as she squeezed back.

"Okay, right." Kara shook herself into her professional mask and took out her phone. "Do you mind if I record this?"

Lyra shook her head. "No, but Winn said I shouldn't mention Alex because that's got to be a secret." She gave them a narrow look. "I don't like secrets."

"And we don't like keeping them," said Kara, "but Alex has to stay anonymous. For her own safety: Cadmus is still out there."

Lyra frowned, then nodded once. Kara set her phone on the table and started swiping for the app, but Mon-El, thinking back, frowned. "What did you mean, people are alive because of her? I thought shipping all of you off world was Cadmus' non-lethal option."

It was hard to tell, but Lyra might have gotten paler. "Maybe some of them thought so," she said acidly, "but Lillian Luthor stopped in to let us know our course was for Takron-Galtos."

Lead – or something that felt a lot like it – dropped into Mon-El's stomach. "Oh."

Kara looked between them. "What? Why is that so terrible? It's a resettlement colony."

Mon-El winced. It was easy to forget she'd been a child when she left for Earth, and Kryptonians didn't exactly go around telling ugly truths when pretty lies worked. 

"It's a prison planet," Lyra replied. "And they're not particularly picky about who they execute or whether you're really guilty. Will you be wanting that in your article?"

"Oh." Kara blinked quickly. "Um, yes. But we should start from the beginning." She cleared her throat and tapped Record. "Can you describe the first time you knowingly encountered anyone from the group called Cadmus?"

As Lyra started to describe the events at the bar when she was abducted, Mon-El slipped out of the booth, giving Kara's hand a squeeze on the way. She didn't need him, and he miiiiiiight have failed to mention that he'd called in sick on his shift last night – a shift that Sazu would've had to pick up, and since she was still here now, staring vacantly at the bar as she wiped it down, she must have double-shifted, closing and opening the place. Ouch. 

In fact, she was so out of it she barely noticed Mon-El walk up until he was right beside her. Blinking dully at him, she said, "Did anyone you know get taken?"

Startled, he shook his head. "No. Well, yeah, but they're okay. Are you okay?" 

Sazu shrugged and kept wiping a dry patch of bar. "Sure."

"Uh-huh." He reached to tug the dishrag out of her hands and gently turned her towards the kitchen."Go home and get some sleep. I can handle things till the others get here."

She nodded and shuffled round looking for her handbag, then fumbling with the shoulder strap. Mon-El watched uneasily.

"Hey, uh," he said, "did anyone you know get taken?"

The handbag slipped out of her hands and hit the floor. Sazu sighed and leaned down for it. "My brother," she mumbled, eyes downcast. "He's– okay, he's home now, but I saw them take him, through the window, and..."

Yeah. Yeah, he got that. 

Mon-El nudged her again. "Go home," he said quietly. "You should be together."

She trudged out.

Sazu wasn't the only one. George was supposed to be working the day shift too, but he didn't stumble in till after Mon-El had run two loads of glasses through the dishwasher and put in a rush order for more limes. And when he did turn up, he slumped at the bar and muttered something about losing track of things when your clients get abducted. "Rough few days," said George. "Think the boss would care if I had a shot?"

"Yeah," said Mon-El. "If I told her." He took down a bottle of scotch and a glass for each of them. George knocked his back before Mon-El had finished pouring his own, then looked at the empty glass plaintively.

"Maybe two?" he asked. Mon-El hesitated; shook his head. 

"Sorry, man. You'll hate yourself when it gets loud later. I've seen you. You throw up."

George groaned. "Don't talk about sick. 'sides, it won't get loud."

Frowning, Mon-El poured him water instead. "What do you mean?"

"It's been dead around here," said George, sipping the water. "Everyone's scared."

Mon-El looked around then, really looked. There were Kara and Lyra at their table, leaning in as they talked intently, hardly the image of relaxed and happy clients. Near them Brian was curled up at table with an ale he was barely touching. A trio of Valeronians were racking up pool, talking loudly with booming laughs but twitching every time someone walked too close to their table. Barely a handful of other customers were scattered around, and everyone was quiet, as if any noise would bring Cadmus swooping back in. Even George, and he was human.

"Well, maybe tonight will be better."

George scoffed.

It was the same story all afternoon. Everyone who came in knew someone who'd been abducted or had been taken themselves. Some flitted through, ordered a drink and left most of it behind; one took a look at the bullet holes in the walls and ceiling and almost sprinted away. Others planted themselves at the bar and started talking like they couldn't stop, and by the time Kara finished her interview with Lyra, Mon-El had leant an ear to half a dozen people; nervous people, angry people, people who needed information. 

Those were the only ones he could help. He squashed rumours about a bigger ship hidden out there with thousands of prisoners on board, or one that had already been launched, or was designed to blow up in orbit and kill them all, and said no, Supergirl ruined all of Cadmus' plans and is going to take them down soon. He soothed fears about the Registry being in hostile hands and said, "Supergirl's working on it, it'll be okay." And when they calmed down enough to to ask how he could be so sure, he pulled out his phone to show them this amazing new blog by a talented reporter who happened to be sitting right over there. "She's writing another article now about the escape. Maybe you could tell her what it was like for you?"

A few took him up on it, and as soon as Lyra was done a Trombusan hurried over and begged Kara to put her story online too: her husbands hadn't been captured with her but now she couldn't find them anywhere and was terrified they'd fled the city. A Sedenachian who'd been beaten when he was abducted asked Kara to photograph his wounds and make sure everyone, human and alien, knew how he hadn't resisted and Cadmus had still done this, and they had to be stopped. Others had nothing new to add but went to give their point of view for the record when Mon-El said Kara needed multiple sources, and others just popped over to thank her. 

As evening came and the bar filled up, people started talking to each other, sharing what Mon-El had said, and more than a few sent Kara drinks. By the time Winn arrived and offered to help transcribe recordings, there were four empty club sodas on her table. By the time they finished – and had taken two more interviews from aliens who narrowly escaped capture to round it out – she had enough donated credit on her tab to take home a whole bottle of Aldebaran rum. Once he'd handed off to George and the rest of the evening shift, Mon-El brought it over.

"From your fans," he declared, setting it down with a flourish. Kara blinked. 

"Oh. Um, that's great."

Huh. She seemed like she'd had fun getting drunk. He took a seat. "It's okay if you don't want it. They just needed to thank you."

"They _have_ thanked me," said Kara, shaking her head. "I mean, look at this, Mon-El, I have so much material, I don't know where to start!"

But she was shining again, lighting up with hope and purpose. Mon-El kissed her cheek. "Way to go, babe." Her best smile broke out and she pressed her forehead against his, so happy.

"Look at you two, you're _cute_ ," said Winn. He took out his earbuds and handed Kara's phone back, and closed his laptop. "That's the last interview, it's in your inbox, I am an awesome speed typer."

If not for the table between them, Kara definitely would've hugged him. "I owe you," she said intently. "I owe you huge."

Winn spread his hands, happy and smug and said, "How about you restart games night?"

"Done." She stretched out a hand and they shook on it. 

"Now I gotta run, I promised Lyra we'd– Um," his eyes shot to Kara, then away, "go to her place and, uh..."

Kara's face collapsed into a huge cringe. "I didn't need to know that!"

Chuckling – he couldn't help it – Mon-El held up a palm for a high-five. "Congratulations, buddy! Or 'congrats', is that how you're supposed to shorten it?"

"I'll take it," said Winn, shouldering his bag. "Great luck with your article, Kara, link me when it's done, I will get the word out. And Lyra. Um, well, after we–"

"Winn!"

He retreated. Mon-El started laughing, and Kara, red-faced, punched his shoulder lightly. (It hurt.) "You are _such_ a male."

"Hey, if it were Lyra I'd say the same thing," he shrugged and held Kara's bag open as she started packing up. "On Daxam you always congratulate people on good sex. And don't say it's a guy thing, I've haven't heard you and Alex talking about Maggie."

"That's different, she's my sister." Kara pocketed her phone and picked up her coat.

"Maybe Winn's like a brother to me."

"You never had a brother."

She'd said it off-handedly, and was twisting round in the seat to get her coat on; she didn't notice Mon-El go still. "Yeah, well." He bunched up his shoulders and dropped them as she slid out of the booth. "Ready to go home?"

She nodded. "I want to get the draft for the article about the rescue done tonight. I wonder if James will proofread it for me. People need that one soon. I'll leave the in-depth personal accounts for now; maybe I can do something later this week."

"So you think you'll keep doing this?" he asked, waving goodbye to George and holding the door open for her. "Keep blobbing, I mean."

"For now, yes. These people, they need their stories told. And there's so many more aliens out there who are scared, or hiding or hurt just like the ones in there tonight. They need to know they're not alone."

Mon-El smiled faintly at her as they started down the street. "You did a lot of good today."

"So did you," she said, and he turned to her, surprised. "All those people you sent my way, they would never have come on their own. They were lost and you helped them find their way."

That seemed like a bit of an overstatement. "It was just talking. Mostly I was listening."

"That's what they needed. It's what I needed, this morning and yesterday." Kara looped her arm around his and beamed up at him. "You're a good person, Mon-El."

He smiled and didn't feel it.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is going to be three parts, and the last one should be up tomorrow; I really want it up before the new episode comes out and josses it all.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Truth hurts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was hoping to have this whole story in Mon-El's POV but it refused to work :( So here's a look from in Kara's head.
> 
> I'm going on the assumption that almost everything in Mon-El's flashback happened as shown on screen and that he only tweaked the truth a bit (that awkward "my prince, we must go!" line? Yeah, that doesn't sound like him).

 

 

The whole walk home, Kara's head was full of faces and names and stories and moving quotes and chilling descriptions. There was too much for one article, way too much, but it had to be told, so she tossed around ideas, sketching them out aloud until she'd settled on doing one short piece right away to spread the word that everyone abducted had been freed and as far as they knew Cadmus didn't have any other ship or a Plan B. That would reassure people. She'd use the material from Lyra and two of the others for it; they'd all been clear and factual in their interviews (though she'd had to stop Lyra a few times when she said "so I knew they were going to" or "he would have" and backtrack to clarify why) so she could use a lot of direct quotes. Primary sources, as Snapper had drilled into her head, were always best. Plus it would save writing time: This was news that couldn't wait.

"After that's up I'll start working on something longer with all these personal accounts," she said as they walked in the door. Mon-El headed for the kitchen while she shrugged off her coat and bag. "The problem with a lot of humans is that they've never actually met an alien so they don't really understand how similar we all are. If I can tell their stories and get enough people to read them, maybe it would help build bridges against all this hate in the world." She climbed onto a barstool and booted up her tablet, unpacking her notebooks while Mon-El dug through the freezer. "It could be a series. I could write one alien's story every time; where they came from, why they came to Earth, what it's been like for them here. Between writing about alien-related news, of course. Once a month isn't enough. Maybe once every two weeks?"

No answer. She glanced up to see him mechanically unpacking a pizza and elbowing the freezer closed. "Mon-El?"

He blinked. "Sorry, yeah. Sounds like a great idea." He smiled for her. "You should do that. Can I help?"

"Sure." Her login screen had loaded and she turned to type in her password. "I mean, once I've got this article up we can sit down and I can write your story. It'd be a great start to my series." Escaping Daxam at the last second in one-man pod would be a thrilling start to an article, definitely a good way to get readers to stick around. Though, he wasn't involved in the Cadmus abductions and that's all that anyone would be talking about for a while–

"Eh, there's not much to tell, you already know it all," Mon-El said, shrugging. "Party, drink, guard the royal family. Everything with the DEO is classified anyway, so it would leave a lot of gaps."

"Oh, yeah," said Kara, disappointed. "I guess you're right."

He turned back to the microwave. "You write, babe. I'll have chow ready soon."

Kara nodded absently, mind already back on her blog. Most of tonight's article was already hlf-written in her head during the walk, and she typed as fast as her tablet was able to keep up with. Winn had done a great job transcribing the interviews, she only had to do a little editing to turn them into a smooth narrative, and–

"I'm not a good person."

Kara blinked, fingers halting on the keyboard. "What?"

Mon-El had his back to her, leaning hunched over the counter. He let out a deep breath and turned to face her. "I'm not a good person. I want to be, but I'm not."

Where in Rao's name was this coming from? Kara frowned. "Well, you're not perfect but you've changed, Mon-El," she said.

"Not as much as you think. I'm still lying to you."

Something cold jolted through her and it must have shown on her face because he blurted, "I mean, I'm not _actively_ lying, I lied once back when I first met you had no reason to trust you and never corrected it because I thought it didn't matter, and it doesn't, maybe it does, but you deserve to know and I wanted to tell you and I almost did a few times but I'm really, really scared you won't like me anymore if I do."

Kara shook her head. "Wait, slow down. _What_? Why would you think that? Sure you were..." she waved a hand looking for a word "...less than admirable, but I know who you are now and that's all that matters."

Mon-El looked miserable. "Kara, I want to believe you, but you aren't always as fair and reasonable as you think you are."

_That_ piqued. She folded her arms. "Oh yeah?"

He stiffened. "Yeah," he said, "because for all that you talk big about 'understanding' and 'building bridges', deep down you still think all Daxamites are bullies and hedonists."

She narrowed her eyes. "I am not a hologram. I know you. You're _different_."

"No, Kara, that's exactly who I was and you don't want to face that." He jerked around, pacing the kitchen and dragging his fingers over his scalp. "Look, I am not proud of who I was, but as much as I want to ignore it, we can't, or this–" he shook a hand between them "–is never going to work."

Steeling herself, Kara pulled in a long breath through her nose. "Mon-El," she said coolly, "I think I know what I've gotten into."

"You really don't," he said, and all the fire in him was gone, slumped into resignation. "Did any of those trustworthhy rumours you heard as a kid ever mention there were two princes of Daxam? 'Cause there were, and the one who sent me away in that pod, he wasn't the frat boy you looked down your nose at." Mon-El's voice shook. "He was my brother."

Kara froze. A million spinning feelings hit her gut and _he lied lied lied lied LIED–_

"How _could_ you?"

 

 

_9:21pm_   
_4 missed calls:_   
_Mon-El_   
_Mon-El_   
_Mon-El_   
_Mon-El_

 

 

_9:24pm_  
 _To: Kara_  
I'm sorry.

_9:25pm_  
 _To: Kara_  
That I didn't tell you earlier. I wanted to.

_9:32pm_  
 _To: Kara_  
Winn says I can stay on his couch for a while.

_9:35pm_  
 _To: Kara_  
Please don't hate me.

 

 

_10:18pm_  
 _To: Alex_  
Can you come over?

_10:22pm_  
 _To: Kara_  
I'm with Maggie. What's wrong?

_10:23pm_  
 _To: Alex_  
Everything. Please. Bring ice cream.

_10:25pm_  
 _To: Kara_  
15min.

 

 

"Lyra, I don't know when the article's going up. I'm sure she's working on it." Winn clutched his phhone and made desperate eyes at his guest over the back of the couch. Mon-El hung his head. "No, I'm sure everything's fine. She knows how important this is. I'll get you the link as _soon_ as it goes live. Promise. You can definitely tell your friends. I am. I love you too."

 

 

_11:38pm_  
 _To: Maggie_  
really sorry. i've got to stay w/Kara tonight. romantic crisis

_11:40pm_  
 _To: Alex_  
ML leave the seat up or something?

_11:44pm_  
 _To: Maggie_  
trust issus. shes questioning lifelng asmptions trying 2 figure out if shes racist b/c hes Dxmite.  
+he lied about somthin. not good or bad i think but big. Karas shaken up.

_11:46pm_  
 _To: Alex_  
Give her a hug for me.

_11:53pm_  
 _To: Maggie_  
you dnt hug <3

_11:54pm_  
 _To: Alex_  
As far as she knows <3 <3 <3

 

 

"Hey, Winn?"

A muffled groan filtered through two walls and a lot of fabric. "Knew I should've closed the door."

"You did."

"...damn super hearing." The blankets shifted and his voice cleared. "Yeah?"

"Do you think I'm a bad person?"

Winn sighed and shifted in his bed. "No, man. I mean, we knew you were an ass before. I don't see why it makes a difference that you were a royal one."

Mon-El hugged the borrowed blanket round his neck. "Am I still an ass?"

More sheets shifting. He might have been shrugging. "Hey, we're all asses sometimes. Even Kara."

"Yeah, don't tell her that."

"Duh."

 

 

_2:02am_   
_Incoming call: Kara_

Alex froze on her doorstep, keys jangling loudly in the dark as she swiped Accept. "What's wrong? Do you need me to come back?"

_"No. No, it's nothing. I mean, I didn't say thank you. For coming over. So, um, thank you."_

Fondly rolling her eyes, Alex turned the key and stepped into the foyer of her apartment block. "What are sisters for?"

_"Say sorry to Maggie for me."_

"She gets it. Will you be okay?"

Kara sniffed. The speaker crackled for a second as fabric covered the mic. _"I think so. It's a lot."_

"Get some rest." Alex jabbed the elevator button and dragged her feet inside. "Things will be clearer in the morning, I promise."

_"Thanks, Sis."_

 

 

_8:21am_  
 _To: Mon-El_  
Come home.

 

 

The smell of milk and sugar floated through the door as Kara opened it. Mon-El was looking at her, nervous, holding two coffees and a box of chocolate double sprinkle donuts. "I'm sorry," he said. "For all of it."

"Me too."

She stepped back to let him in, accepting the coffee he offered. He put the donuts down and hovered, fingers flexing on the cup in his hand. "Look, I– I need you to know something." He put the cup down. "I'm proud of my brother." He closed his eyes and the words, rehearsed, spilled out. "We had one job on Daxam: to protect our people. He stayed behind to die with them and I abandoned them. I know he did it because he loved me, but it doesn't make me any less of a coward."

Kara looked down guiltily.

"I'm proud of him," Mon-El said softly. "And I wish I could live up to him. And if the best I can do is help people here, maybe that's my calling. But I should've told you everything a long time ago."

"I.... should've been ready to listen." He looked up, and Kara tried not to be stung by the surprise on his face. "I'm sorry."

"Me too."

Feeling twice as awkward as usual, Kara ducked and fished around in the box for the best donuts, and offered him two. He took them with a small smile. "I'll never get tired of these," he said.

"Me neither." Kara looked at him, really looked, eyes fixed on every detail of him. Who he was now. Who he was trying to be. "Mon-El?" she said.

"Mm?"

"I love you."

His face lit up like Christmas. "Me too."

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know, originally I was going to end the story after "the prince was my brother". I didn't _want_ to write all the messy emotional fallout. I hope I did it justice. Let's see what 2x16 brings :)


End file.
